GLENS FALLS – A more determined effort wasn’t enough.
Kingston dominated Green Tech in the third quarter, but ran out of steam when the Tigers needed the final push to pull off the upset. On Saturday, their memorable run came to an end with a 52-45 loss to a strong team in the second round of the NYSPHSAA Class AAA tournament at Cool Insuring Arena.
Every mistake I made during a stretch drained what little energy I had left.
“Yeah, they sent them to the gas chamber,” Kingston coach Ron Kelder said. “We were going to go with our guys. I think we went small and confused them a little bit, but it also takes a lot of effort.”
When these teams met a month ago, the Eagles won on the road.
Every time they started building a lead, the Tigers extended it further defensively. Green Tech scored 83 in the first matchup and entered halftime with a 23-20 advantage Saturday.
“They definitely came into the game with more of a shoulder injury,” Eagles junior guard Heishi Maben said. “They were ready to play. A hard team. Their defense definitely forced us to make smarter decisions on offense.”
Elijah Abrams capped off a back-and-forth third quarter with a timely one-one hit to cut the lead to 35-34.
“We just played together and made the right choices,” Kingston senior guard Kemonte Sawe said. “They're a well-organized team.”
A head-and-shoulders fake gave Brady Gardner enough room to put the Tigers ahead in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, but Kingston only made one field goal over the next six minutes.
Green Tech took a 49-39 lead when Maven set up Umair Graham's baseline slam and made a free throw with 2:06 left.
“That's a good basketball team,” Kelder added. “We had a chance when we got over the hump and took a 36-35 lead, but we couldn't take advantage of it. Then we gave up a few runs and allowed them to come back. That's the difference. They sent us two buckets, but we didn't get two buckets.”
Abrams and Towie each scored 11 points to lead Kingston, which shot 30 percent from the field but committed 15 turnovers. Derek Constance and Marcus Steele each added nine points.
“I'm going to remember the connections we had, the family ties we had,” Sawe said. “all.”
The Tigers finished with 18 wins and 5 losses.
“We definitely wanted to shoot the ball better today, but we also wanted to attack their big balls, so we did that,” Kelder said. “We wanted to get more paint touches on kickout 3, but they muddied the game on the perimeter. It was a very good group of kids and I couldn’t be more proud of their accomplishments. you can't.”
